Soils and Pulses, a Symbiosis for Life

Every year on 5th December, World Soil Day celebrates the importance of soil in the natural world and in sustaining human wellbeing. In 2016, the UN International Year of Pulses, the day's theme is the relationship between soil and pulses. Pulses depend on soil to grow but also contribute to the health and vitality of soil, helping it to sustain life.

In 2016, the UN International Year of Pulses, the theme for World Soil Day is "Soils and Pulses: Symbiosis for Life". The day focuses on the contributions that both soil and pulses can make to the challenges of feeding the world and combating climate change, especially together.

"Soils and pulses embody a unique symbiosis that protects the environment, enhances productivity, contributes to adapting to climate change and provides fundamental nutrients to the soil and subsequent crops"José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)

All pulses are the fruit of nitrogen-fixing leguminous plants that benefit soil health by adding the fertility of nitrogen "fixed" from the atmosphere. Cereals grown after a pulse crop on average yield 1.5 more tonnes per hectare, equivalent to the effect of 100kg of nitrogen fertiliser without the heavy energy burden of fertiliser production. Pulses can also help to restore the health of degraded soil by encouraging carbon sequestration and cleaner water filtration.

The world is currently losing soil 10 to 20 times faster than it is replenished. Acidification, salinization, erosion and urbanisation are all contributing to the degradation and loss of soil. Pulses can help counter this worrying trend, while also helping to address hunger, food insecurity, malnutrition and declining rural incomes.

Nick Saltmarsh

Leave a comment

Also in Hodmeblog

Professor Martin Wolfe was a great friend and mentor to us. A true pioneer, Martin pursued his research into agroforestry, co-cropping, crop populations, new crop trials and more at his Suffolk farm Wakelyns. Believing that sustainability depended not just on a whole farm approach but on radical change to the whole food system, he shared his expertise widely and generously. Martin died peacefully at home earlier this month. He leaves a lasting legacy of work, not least his YQ wheat population, and his memory will remain a guiding inspiration to us.

Pioneering farmers Peter and Andrew Fairs, of Great Tey in Essex, have successfully grown the first ever crop of British chia. These tiny oil-rich seeds represent another step in Hodmedod's mission to increase the diversity of both British farming and British diets.